Computer generated objects may be initially provided by an artist authored object. An artist authored object may have an initial level of detail. These initial artist authored objects may be required to be simplified in order to reduce the level of detail, depending on the given context within the virtual environment. The simplified versions resemble the original objects in some useful aspects. In the context of computer games, this is known as Level of Detail (LOD) generation. Simplification may be performed in order to meet a resource cost indicative of the processor and memory required to handle the object. The full resolution computer generated object may not always be needed, and so there are circumstances in which a lower resolution, simplified object will be more appropriate in order to reduce the resource cost.
In computer games and other areas, such as computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) processes, polygonal meshes may be used. A polygonal mesh may be a collection of vertices, edges, and faces that define the shape and/or boundary of an object. The faces may consist of various polygonal shapes such as triangles, quadrilaterals, convex polygons, concave polygons, regular polygons (e.g. polygons which may have equal length sides and may have equal angles) and/or irregular polygons (e.g. polygons which may not have equal length sides and may not have equal angles).